Town Meeting Notes

The Annual Town meeting completed after two (2) meetings, and once again was plagued with low attendance, illegal motions, motions that were mistakenly written, and the manipulation of article numbering to put the most controversial articles at the end.

What is even more amazing is that with 27 Regular town meeting articles and 5 special town meeting article it was never necessary to do an actual count of the votes.  The moderator declared the outcome from a voice vote or show of hands even though there were a number of articles that required a two-thirds vote. We all just better keep on hoping that the moderator’s hearing remains good enough to distinguish how many voters yelled yes and how many yelled no.  It is amazing that with all the technology available today, critical votes are still decided by a voice vote.

As reported in the Stoneham Sun on Article 12, “since the Planning Board did not have a public hearing on the matter, Town Meeting could not legally take any action.”  This failure in process resulted in indefinite postponement of other article and left the Business Community frustrated with the town’s ability to handle the issues.

Once again the warrant was manipulated to put a controversial article, the cell tower at the senior center, at the end so there were less than 90 voters still at the meeting to vote. 

Open Town Meeting is the cornerstone on which our democracy is built.  However, this cornerstone is being chipped away by a power structure that wants to control and manipulate it.  It is time to take our Town Meeting back and insist:

1. Our Town Officials insure that correct processes are adhered to and that the most controversial article are addressed first.
2. That vote counts are taken on all articles except unanimous.